March 15, 2015 at 3:12AM

Favorite War Movie?

40 Comments

I don't always think of World War II when it comes to war movies, so my favorite "war movie" is Ridley Scott's "Gladiator" (2000). I love the story of this movie. I love the characters and the actor's performances. I love the visuals. ( the opening battle scene is both shocking an breathtaking ) I am also amazed that this really is a big CGI movie, but the CGI is done so well that you really don't notice it while you're watching it. For me this movie shows Russell Crowe at his best. He certainly deserved to with the Oscar for his performance.

true story told perfectly? they shot the film in Morocco, Rabat looks nothing like Mogadishu, and they used Nigerian actors that look nothing like Somalis. The story was 2-dimensional and boring, and wasn't a reflection of anything "true" besides true emotional blackmailing.

Emotion for the sake of emotion isn't good filmmaking...This film's dis-information bordered on what I'd consider a harmful level.

Not everyone goes to the movies to learn something, but I don't think people go to the movies to be lied to, either.

Thanks Matthew for sharing about actual shooting location for this movie, and about using Nigerian actors rather than Somalis.

I watched this movie many times and then one day I watched a documentary/program on discovery channel about this mission where Black Hawk helicopter was shot down and how all the trouble began. They gave a v similar account of the events that preceded as in this movie.

Personally I believe it is must for a good film to have justified emotions.

You also commented 'Story is boring and 2-dimensional'. I believe this is an actual account on basis of documentary shown on discovery channel(I am not a historian otherwise).

I regret the word BORING to be used for story of soldiers/innocent people who sacrificed their lives or injured in this mission.

Favorite movies depends upon our own instinct, or analysis of film components and what we feel after watching a movie, which may differ from person to person.

There are many extraordinarily good war movies, Hurt locker, Saving Private Ryan, Schindlers list, Inglorious Bastards, Behind enemy lines, Glory,Full Metal jacket, Fury, Braveheart, Gladiator,Der Untergang(The Downfall) and many others. But one has to be your favorite.

I'm not so harsh on Black Hawk Down. Yeah, it sweeps all sorts of details under the rug in order to get to the point of telling a rousing story, like many movies do. The true part is a chopper going down, soldiers choosing to attempt rescue, and people dying in battle. That is then glorified. http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/01/black-hawk-down-reel-history

If you could change a thing or two about the movie, what would it be? Add something or take it away. What do you think the filmmakers should have focused on? It is an interesting incident.

As far as film settings and honesty, if a person wants to smile, think of John Ford and Monument Valley. For Texas? Geez

It is an interesting question, Daniel. I generally prefer watching war films that don't reinforce or regurgitate the mythology that American military industrial complex is a force acting on behalf of a greater good. I like films that make me question and consider, or push me to understand a point of view that is a subversive or alternative one to the powerful or the mainstream.

The fact of the matter is that the events that occurred on that day in Mogadishu were much, much more complicated than what ended up in the film. I'm not even referring to the larger geopolitical context that Operation Restore Hope occurred within, though this was only marginally referenced; let's just consider what happened within the existing narrative structure Ridley Scott presents to us. 50% of the story of what happened that day is just completely absent.

Watch the film again and try to count how many Somali men, women and children were likely killed on that day. You'll lose count at some point, at other points you will have to estimate (accounting for stray bullets, ricochets, or collateral damage from rockets and missiles). What were they doing that day, Daniel? Who are these people who our protagonists casually refer to as "skinnies"? Wouldn't understanding their motivations create a slightly more thoughtful, nuanced retelling of a major world event?

Here's my producer's bottom line: Ridley, go make your war movie about American blind arrogance and willful ignorance and whatever other issues you may feel you're snarkily bringing to the table, please just recognize you're taking a real cheap shot at an enormous community of innocent people who've already been dealt a pretty shit card. And if you are going to completely ignore the Somali side to this story and write them as one-dimensional gun-fodder to be mowed down by that .50cal, if you still feel that best serves the purposes of your film and you want to go ahead with this, well I think the very least you could do is cast actual Somalis and give them a paycheck.

Probably The Thin Red Line. Remember seeing it in the cinema and being in tears at the sheer beauty of it all. The whole Malick thing of 'sun coming through tree branches' has become a bit of a cliché now, but at the time it felt incredible to have this film contrast the worst of man alongside the best of nature. Plus the sequence where the US troops take a hillside bunker is just incredible, visceral filmmaking.

For what it's worth, a friend of mine was in the army and comes from a military family - including a brother who's done two tours in Afghanistan. Apparently they all love Full Metal Jacket, reckon it's the closest any film's come to capturing what it's actually like to be a soldier - the p*ss-taking, bullying, laughing; being bored one minute and terrified the next; the way they have their own language, their own way of interacting. I don't know if that's because of the emphasis on the boot camp, but I'm happy to defer to their knowledge...

I agree with All Quiet on the Western Front. Even the later version is good. Any novel to get Hitler so wound up gets my vote. For all you peeps in the New World, what about the British films Dunkirk, Ice Cold in Alex or even Batlle of Britain?

If you wanted to make a true story war film what about this guy? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cyril_Jackson. He should not have been on the bomber as he had completed 30 raids, but went with the crew on what was their final 30th. His wife was due to give birth that night. Although wounded by a night fighter attack he crawls out onto the wing to put a fire out. Burnt and wounded, he is shot again by the fighter, he falls with a burning parachute but survives. On his second escape attempt from a POW camp, he meets up with the Americans. Write a fictional plot like that and you would be a laughing stock.

Days of Glory (Indigènes) is a great French film about Algerians in the Free French Army. The Counterfeiters is a Austrian title about Operation Bernhard, the Nazi's use of skilled concentration camp inmates to forge fake allied money. Downfall is up there too, easily the best and grittiest on-screen portrayal of Hitler. Ever.

Although the two Cornelius Ryan adaptations (Longest Day and Bridge Too Far) are classics too. It's nice to see historical films not straying too far from the facts, even if they do cast Gene Hackman as a Polish General... *sigh*

Of course! Downfall. Where would YouTube be without it? I love the Hitler parodies but what I have noticed is that when the Downfall Hitler phones any of the other Hitlers, is just how poor those other portrayals are in comparison even when very good actors are playing him. Downfall seems to be the only film portrayal of Hitler that is not cartoonish.

I can see all the heat coming... but I actually really found that Fury explored war psychology well - maybe better than The Thin Red Line or Saving Private Ryan, minus the "We Americans are the Good Guys" propaganda twist you found in SVP or every other American War movie.

War is a horrible phenomenon, and Fury managed to dive deep in such horror. It's just that the last scene was way too utopian...

Paths of glory is amazing in the fact it shows the stupidity and double think of politics and warfare so clearly. I don't think I've ever felt in a movie as angry as when I first watched the trial scene.

"Come and see" is an incoherent mess but Klimov's wife Larissa Shepitko's made "The Ascent" - Golden Bear Award/ best film, Berlin IFF, 1977 - and it is a work of genius.

Mikhail Kalatozov's "The Cranes are Flying" won the Golden Palm (best film) at Cannes'1958 and shows off the partnership between Kalatozov and his cinematographer Sergey Urusevsky that also resulted in "I am Cuba" half a decade later.

Get your FREE copy of the eBook called "astonishingly detailed and useful" by Filmmaker Magazine!
It's 100+ pages on what you need to know to make beautiful, inexpensive movies using a DSLR. Subscribe to receive the free PDF!